Male Posturing - June 2021 As I rode my bike inside the Isla Blanca Park I came upon this male Great-tailed Grackle who was, surprisingly, very aggressive about my approach. (Image one) I stopped and began taking pictures. To my surprise, he assumed a strange posture with his beak pointing straight up toward the sky. (Image two) That’s when I realized that there were two other male Great-tailed Grackles standing nearby and that they were also posturing with their beaks pointed straight up to the sky. (Image three) After of few minutes of this, one of the birds flew away and the remaining two stood side by side moving their heads slightly and adjusting their tail feathers for a better display. (Images four and five) Then one of the birds stepped forward, fluffed out its feathers, and began crying raucously. (Image six) The other joined it and imitated the fluffed-out, noisy, display.(Image seven) The first bird then went back to the beak pointed to the sky posture, but only a moment later, the second bird returned to his fluffed out state and pounced on top of the first bird (Image eight). That evidently ended the contest because the first bird flew away leaving the winner strutting around in the grass. MWM
